Sam Phillips' Sun Records

Sam Phillips is not just one of the most important producers in rock
history. There's a good argument to be made that he is also one of the most important
figures in 20th-century American culture. As owner of Sun Records and frequent producer of
discs at his Sun Studios he was vital to launching the careers of Elvis Presley, Carl
Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Rufus Thomas and numerous
other significant artists. Although he first made his mark (and a very deep one) with
electric blues by Black performers, he will be most remembered for his rockabilly stars,
particularly Elvis Presley.
Good News for those that like online gambling

Sam and Aunt Emma Lovelace late 1955 or early 1956Photo courtesy Sam Phillips Family

Sam Phillips was born January 5, 1923, the youngest of eight children and
was raised on a farm just outside Florence, Alabama. In high school Phillips conducted the
school band. His onstage presence impressed the manager of local WLAY radio that he was
hired as a part-time announcer. The Phillips were a typical middle class family until the
Great Crash of 1929. Sam's father died in 1941 just after Pearl Harbor. He then dropped
out of high school to help support his mother and deaf mute aunt. He worked first at a
grocery and later a funeral home. It was while at the Brown-Service funeral home that
Phillips learn how to handle people tactfully in emotional situations, a skill that later
would serve him well.

Jim Connolly Photo courtesy Dot Connolly West

WLAYPhoto courtesy Sam Phillips Family

Originally Phillips wanted to study law, but because of circumstances
decided to go into radio. He went to Alabama Polytechnical Institute in Auburn, Alabama
where he majored in engineering, including audio engineering for radio. In broke into
radio in 1940 when he conducted and emceed the band for a college concert. This impressed
Jim Connally the station manager at WLAY enough that he hired Phillips.

Sam and Becky Phillips

Sam, Knox, Becky and Jerry Phillipscirca 1949

Phillips at his desk at WREC

WMSL 1944

In 1942 he married Rebecca Burns. Phillips next radio job was for three
years at WMSL in Decatur, Alabama, then to WLAC in Nashville, Tennessee and finally in
June, 1945 to WREC. At WREC he hosted the "Songs of the West" show daily at 4
PM. There he was able to put his engineering skills into use. In those days many programs
were prerecorded on 16 inch acetate discs which were often duplicated and passed to other
stations. Thus the radio engineers were also recording engineers and thus Phillips was
able to develop his recording skills. He also took care of the station's sound effects and
found records for its library.

Skyway Ballroom
Photo courtesy Sam Phillips family

While at WREC he hosted "Saturday Afternoon Tea Dance" where he
played jazz, blues and pop from the Skyway Room of the Peabody Hotel. The shows were
broadcast nationally over the CBS radio network

Memphis Recording Studio
Photo courtesy Sam Phillips Family

706 Union StreetPhoto Courtesy Jim Cole

In October 1949 Phillips signed a lease on a small storefront located at
706 Union Avenue near downtown Memphis. The rent was $150 a month. With the help of two
year loan from Buck Turner, a regular performer at WREC, he installed recording equipment.
The Memphis recording studio opened in January 1950 with the slogan "We Record
Anything-Anywhere- Anytime." With a Presto five-input mixer board and Presto PT900
portable tape recorder in the trunk of his car, Phillips would whatever weddings, funerals
or religious gatherings he could book.

Most of his early commercial recordings were done onto acetate rather than
than at that time unproven tape. By 1954 he had upgraded his equipment and installed
two Ampex 350 recorders: one a console model and another mounted behind his head for the
tape delay echo, or slapback.

Memphis Recording Studio's first paying job was transcriptions of Buck
Turner's band for the Arkansas Rural Electrification Program. These were distributed to
fifteen to twenty stations throughout the mid-South. It was probably five or six months
later that Phillips decided to record artists to sell or lease masters.

Phillips along with his friend Dewey Phillips decided to start their own
record label. The new label was simply called Phillips - "The Hottest Thing in the
Country." The first record was "Boogie in the Park" by Joe Hill Louis. On
August 30, 1950 three hundred copies were pressed and shipped to Music Distribution
in Memphis.

Saul and Joe Bihari
Photo courtesy Michael Bihari

Phillips decided to get out of the manufacturing end of the business as
his relationship the Biharis (Joe, Saul and Jules) Modern Records grew. The Biharis had
started a subsidiary RPM Records for music with a down home feel. At first Phillips sent
them samples of Joe Hill, a local gospel group and jazz pianist PhineasNewborn, Jr

.Riley (B.B.) King
Photo courtesy B.B. King Museum

In 1950 Jules Bihari signed B.B. King to a contract and placed him with
Phillips. Working under Bihari's direct Phillips recorded King from mid-1950 until June
1951. The Biharis released five singles from the material Phillips sent, making King one
of the first artists on their new RPM subsidiary.Phillips' involvement with King
would later end a casualty of the dispute between the Biharis and Phillips over the
placing of "Rocket 88" with Chess Records.